David M. Smith (virologist)

Davey Smith working in the lab

Smith earned his BS in biology (summa cum laude) in 1992 from the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, and his MD from East Tennessee State University College of Medicine in Johnson City in 1996. He then moved to the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego), where he completed his internship and residency (1999), chief residency (2000), a fellowship in infectious diseases (2003), and earned his MAS in clinical research (2005). Smith is board certified in infectious diseases, and a Fellow of both the American College of Physicians and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. In 2015, he was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation.[2]

In 2003, Smith was appointed assistant adjunct professor of medicine at UC San Diego. He was promoted to associate professor of medicine in residence in 2009, and named co-director of the San Diego Center for AIDS Research (SD CFAR) in 2014.[3] He was promoted to professor in 2013 and then vice chair of faculty in 2016. In 2017, Smith began his service as chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, where he oversees more than 100 faculty.

In addition to his academic and administrative appointments at UC San Diego, in 2001 Smith helped found The Night Clinic[4] of Family Health Centers of San Diego, where he continues to serve as medical director.[5] The Night Clinic provides culturally competent medical care to gay men and transgender individuals.[6] He has also served the VA San Diego Healthcare System[7] since 2005 as a staff physician and director of the HIV/HCV and HIV/HPV Co-infections Clinics.[8]

Smith is a translational research virologist. He applies laboratory research to inform clinical studies and vice versa in the U.S. and internationally. He studies HIV transmission,[9] including HIV superinfection,[10] molecular epidemiology,[11] and the characteristics of HIV found in the genital tract.[12] One of Smith's most innovative projects to date is the NIH-funded Last Gift Study,[13] designed to identify hidden reservoirs of HIV through rapid autopsies of individuals who lived with HIV and were diagnosed with an unrelated terminal illness, such as cancer, neurological conditions, or end-stage organ failure. In summary, Smith's research represents an effort to understand the drivers of HIV transmission and find new ways to interrupt them.

In late 2019, when reports of a novel coronavirus began circulating, Smith immediately began investigating causes, preventatives, and potential cures with colleagues in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at UC San Diego. He currently leads or contributes to a number of COVID-19 studies at UC San Diego and across the United States.[14] Smith was also instrumental in coordinating a $1 million donation from the John and Mary Tu Foundation to support his COVID-19 clinical research activities. Additionally, in March 2020, in his role as co-director of the San Diego Center for AIDS Research (SD CFAR), Smith encouraged collaborative partnerships across the 17 NIH-funded Centers for AIDS Research (CFARs) to pool laboratory equipment, methods, and knowledge applicable to HIV and easily transferable to studies of COVID-19